Death of brain tumour patient strikes hard on Human rights note

Dubai, May 6 (UNI) Human rights activists in Bahrain have reacted stongly against a travel ban on a brain tumour patient from Kerala, who died in Bahrain after being prevented from returning home to India where he could receive potentially life-saving treatment.

Shanmugam Chandran, 51, had borrowed 11,000 Bahraini Dirhams for some 'personal reasons' in 2003. Not being able to pay back the sum, he was stopped from flying back to India and was thus forced to spent the last two years in hospital after being diagnosed with a tumour that led to his death.

A carpenter by profession, Shanmugam underwent four major operations in a Manama hospital while the Migrant Workers' Protection Society (MWPS) had been demanding that he be sent home despite a court case registered against him by his creditors.

MWPS action committee head Marietta Das said Chandran had been blacklisted and would be allowed to leave the country only if he had paid back the loan.

Chandran's friends managed to raise BD250 to support his family in Kerala and his body was repatriated by Air-India free of charge.

The only breadwinner for his family, Chandran is saved by his wife Revathi, 45, daughter Sumathi, 20, and son Karthik, 17.

UNI